Back to Some Notes on the Logarithmic
and Golden Mean Spirals
A short technical note:
My original copyright vortex sculptures are not, and cannot be,
golden
spirals, and neither are the illicit copies of my vortex sculptures
published
by the person referred to in the "Plagiarism Notice" at the top
of this website.
- The golden spiral is anachronistic. It was not known in the
ancient
world, and was only algebraically defined by Descartes in modern times.
Any scholar attempting to reconstruct what was known thousands of years
ago would be taken to be a fool for imposing the golden spiral on work
of that period. This imposition has hurt Meru Foundation's credibility,
because of the plagiarist's false claims.
.
- The golden spiral is a 2-dimensional form that like all log
spirals
always increases, and has an infinite number of turns. My original
copyright
sculpture is a limited, 1-1/2 turn, 3-dimensional form, with the outer
turns bent back. As any sane person knows, a circle is not a circle if
you cut off part of the arc, or bend it over the edge of a table. The
plagiarist
could have started with any spiral, even the golden spiral, but once he
cut it short and bent it (as he did to match my sculpture), it is no
longer
the spiral it started as. It's not the same mathematical object -- in
fact,
it's not even a mathematical object at all.
.
- The plagiarist's nomination of the golden spiral is utterly
inconsistent
with the other work he took from me. There is no previous example of
the
symmetry/asymmetry model that I laid out in my paper, The
Light in the Meeting Tent, found elsewhere on our website.
There
is no previous example of any "flame letter" that takes the form
of the sculpture I designed. The plagiarist's claims regarding the
tetrahedron-and-vortex
as models of symmetry and asymmetry are copies of my claims -- and they
are entirely inconsistent with his claim that the golden spiral
represents
the asymmetrical part of the symmetry/asymmetry pair. This is because,
as the plagiarist correctly states, the golden spiral is always and
entirely self-similar. Although the plagiarist may not wish to
know
it, self-similarity is the definition of symmetry. That's what
the word symmetry
means.
Thus, on his own (stolen) terms, the plagiarist's claim is
mathematically
incompetent. The actual spiral vortex that the plagiarist shows, which
he copied from me, is the antithesis (opposite) of the golden spiral.
It
is, in fact, the most symmetrical spiral, not the most asymmetrical
spiral.
These false technical claims may sell to the plagiarist's
mathematically
untrained audiences, but at the same time, they are a technical
defamation
of my work, which makes it a laughing stock among persons who know the
geometry and mathematics.
- The golden spiral, being self-similar, always circles itself and
mirrors
itself, in its own image. If you check your classics, you will find
that
this matches the description of Narcissus. Narcissus worships himself
in
his reflection (self-similarity), in his own image. It is ironic indeed
that the plagiarist should be so attracted to the symbol of self-love,
the golden spiral. (I am not referring to the golden proportion, which
is of enormous and proper significance. I am only referring to the
golden
spiral.)
Further, the Western, Abrahamic faiths -- Judaism, Christianity,
and
Islam -- are based on the idea of a One God, and on the utter
refutation
of idolatry. It is absurd for the plagiarist to propose that the
ancient
western sacred alphabets are based on a golden spiral, because that, in
fact, would make them the most horrendous of idols to the persons who
used
these alphabets. Again, his incompetence makes my work look foolish
among
experts who know. The golden spiral is not only technically unsound, is
not only anachronistic, but it is also directly philosophically opposed
to the beliefs of the persons whom the plagiarist claims made use of
it.
It is, in fact, the archetype of narcissism and idolatry. I can provide
numerous academic and mathematical references that discuss the
foolishness
of the persistence of cult-like belief in the resurrective powers of
the
golden spiral. The plagiarist's linkage of the golden spiral with
immortality
is also, like the rest of what he presents, taken from others, and
represented
as his own. The history of the use of the golden spiral to seduce
persons
into believing that they can be immortal is well-documented.
Stan Tenen
September, 1997